Best bets are 'Dream On' and 'Sanders'

TODAY'S TV

August 31, 1994|By David Bianculli | David Bianculli,Special to The Sun

Turning to HBO for "Dream On" and "The Larry Sanders Show": Be there, or be bored. Elsewhere on TV, to paraphrase Jerry Lee Lewis, there's a whole lotta nothin' going on.

* "The Nanny" (8-8:30 p.m., Channel 11) -- Renee Taylor guest-stars as Fran's mom on this repeat episode, which places the mother-daughter duo, and Fran's upper-crust employers, in Queens for a day. CBS.

* "Beverly Hills, 90210" (8-10 p.m., Channel 45) -- I see Paris, I see France, I see Shannen leaving the show. This is a repeat of the episode in which Brenda (Shannen Doherty) decides to study abroad -- the excuse the writers used to allow the easy removal of her character from "90210," which begins its new season a week from tonight. Picking up the slack: Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, who joins the cast next week after years on "Saved By the Bell," and Kathleen Robertson, whose character of Clare is featured in tonight's show. Fox.

* "Home Improvement" (9-9:30 p.m., Channel 13) -- Al (Richard Karn) and Tim (Tim Allen) go ice fishing, but don't have an ice time. One of last season's stronger episodes, made even funnier by the way it showcases Al, the show's usually meek second banana. ABC.

Cable

* "Biography: Francisco Franco" (8-9 p.m., A&E) -- Tonight's "Biography" looks at the life and military career of Spanish Generalissimo Francisco Franco (1892-1975).

* "Reflections on the Silver Screen: Angela Lansbury" (8:35-9:05 p.m., AMC) -- It's been 10 years since Lansbury began starring on TV's "Murder, She Wrote," but that's only one decade in a show-business career that stretches back more than half a century.

* "Dream On" (10-10:30 p.m., HBO) -- Not a bad month for Denny Dillon, who plays Toby, Martin's secretary. First she gets cast by Fox to play Roseanne Arnold, and tonight she gets fired by Martin (Brian Benben) -- then rehired as an associate editor.

* "The Larry Sanders Show" (10:30-11 p.m., HBO) -- Jon Lovitz, who has appeared on this series before as one of Larry's closest friends, returns tonight -- and makes moves on Darlene (Linda Doucett), who recently had an office romance with Larry (Garry Shandling).

* "Tales From the Crypt" (11-11:30 p.m., HBO) -- This episode of "Crypt" is much funnier, and sexier, in this unedited HBO version than its tamer version on Fox, so catch it here. Andrew McCarthy plays a writer who uses a love potion to attract the actress neighbor of his dreams -- played by Mariel Hemingway with an abandon, and a right cross, that Ernest would have loved.